What We Learned During 15 Minutes With Remi Adeleke [VIDEO]

Sometimes in our society it takes being pushed to the edge to make extreme decisions that actually better your life. We’ve seen it amongst Black mothers who make a way out of no way, we’e seen in it starving artists who go homeless chasing a dream, and it’s the story of Remi Adeleke, who overcame the odds of his drug-ridden community where trouble lurked at every turn. He pushed himself to join the Navy SEALs.

“I didn’t want to fail anymore,” he says. “I felt like I had nothing left. The Seals team was my way out. I had no other options [and] that’s what pushed me.”

From being stripped of everything by the Nigerian government after losing his father at a young age to being raised by a single mom in the Bronx, Adeleke had to adapt. Luckily, his mother instilled “excellence” into him and his siblings that stuck with him, even after he navigated poor school systems, illegal activity and more. After joining the SEALs team, which he had to prove himself for because it almost didn’t happen due to some legal issues, Adeleke went on to become an entrepreneur, actor (Transformers: The Last Knight, 2017) and now, author. His new book, Transformed, details it all.

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In the interview up top, Adeleke describes how he transformed his life and what he wants people to know about overcoming odds.

“[I’m not] trying to show people how good I am. [I’m] trying to show people how bad I was. As time began to progress, I began to use my failures, derive the lessons from those failures, take those lessons, and turn them into successes. So that’s what I hope people get from this book,” he says. “If you fail, cool. But do not let that failure define your future. Instead, find the lesson within that failure that you can use for your future. Failure is not the end of it all.”

In addition to releasing Transformed, Adeleke is working on his first film, which is an espionage thriller based on strong black CIA agents he wrote using his military experience. He said it’s “loosely based off a chapter in the bookcalled ‘chameleon.’” He’s also working on a story about one of the first groups of African Americans to serve in the military’s special forces – a story he called similar to that of ‘Hidden Figures’ because it isn’t well-known news.

Want to know more? Keep up with Remi Adeleke on social media @RemiAdeleke!